Chance me for 2024

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston University
1

Hi CC,
I recently did some research and found that Boston U seems to have a pretty large scholarship for NMFs ($25,000 Presidential Scholarship). I am a likely NMSF based on my PSAT of 1500. Based on my info, would BU be considered a match or reach for me?

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1560 (took one time) 770 RW/ 790 M, 6/5/6 essay
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.00
Weighted GPA: 5.51/6.00
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2%, class size about 275
AP (place score in parenthesis): US Gov (5), Calc AB (5), Stats (5), CS A (5), English Lang (5), Calc BC (5), Chemistry (5), Physics 1 (5), World History (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Physics C: Mech, AP English Lit, AP Econ Macro/Micro, Engineering, AP Latin 5, MVC (summer), Linear Alg, DiffEq
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Likely NMSF, Latin National Exam Gold Medal & Perfect Paper, State Qualifier for Chem Olympiad, National AP Scholar

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): I have a recent post detailing my ECs
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer at local adapted sports league, other minor activities, total 400+ hours
Summer Activities: Summer before senior year I have been continuing my lab research and writing a paper to hopefully get published in the fall, took MVC at a local university

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP Chem teacher, we are very close and they are known for writing good recs
Teacher Rec #2: AP English Lang teacher, I am an active participant in their class and we are pretty close
Counselor Rec: good relationship with counselor, more than just a number to them & have talked with them many times about college-related things
Additional Rec: Professor who oversees my lab research, I have worked with them for over a year

Other

Applied for Financial Aid: Yes
Intended Major: Biomed Engineering, but this is not set in stone
State (if domestic applicant): would rather not disclose, but east coast
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public, magnet, suburbs
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: $80-120K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): 1st gen immigrant, but I don’t think this really counts

TL;DR – I am a 4.0/1560 student with good (but maybe not great?) ECs and a likely NMSF. Is BU a match or reach for me?

2

@sciencegirl2024
BU is definitely a match for you and they have a great Bio Med Engineering department. Check out the profiles of the faculty.
If you don’t qualify for the financial aid (need based, and generally higher in amount), you will be given NMF award of 20k for each year of undergrad. But for that you need to make up your mind about joining BU by sometime in March and indicate it as your 1st choice in the NMF application somewhere I believe. Search BU portal for specifics.
The paper you are working on is great but may not count much unless it gets published around the time you apply.
They also have limited Trustee scholarships, like 20 or so at University level, which cover complete tuition of the undergrad.

3

@rk2017 Thanks for your response!
Does that mean I wouldn’t be able to get the NMF award if I did qualify for financial aid? I was hoping to apply for fin aid also and possibly stack the two.

4

@sciencegirl2024
That is my understanding. Let’s say if they decide to give a financial aid need based award of 40k a year and you also qualified for the 20k NMF award, they will give you the financial aid and pass on the 20k to some other NMF candidate with no other financial assistance. They do have an excess number of NMFs applying there year over year.
If you think this can make a difference between your applying there or not, I suggest you call up BU admissions directly and get it confirmed.

5

BU does not stack merit and need based aid. If you receive the NMF merit award then your need based aid would be reduced by that amount.

Are you Pell eligible?

6

@TomSrOfBoston Thanks for your comment, that’s good to know.
No, I am not Pell eligible.